Below: An escape at the 2020 roundup at the Red Desert by a tenacious black stallion and his brave and loyal family that followed him in spite of the pressure from the helicopter above. This is one of those moments you never forget.

There is a lot happening this mid-October in the world of wild horses and burros.

First, First Amendment:

One of the most obvious and troubling issues is the lack of access on the ground, the withholding of critical information, and the erosion of the “public” in public lands.

Our team is working behind the scenes to address this tragic reality. WHE was born out of the battle to protect the public’s rights. Today, some battles already fought and won must be fought again. Our groundbreaking 2012 First Amendment victory had far-reaching implications for press freedoms nationwide. In the same way, a broader crackdown on free speech and public access reaches back into wild horse country.

Since July, our team has been working on this issue, and we will share more as those efforts move forward. This is not something we—or anyone who cares about public lands, wild horses, and government accountability—can afford to ignore.

As we have said before, the entire big-money “Path Forward” agenda opened the door to driving the Wild Horse and Burro Program backward. We described it as having “sold out the fight on many fronts.” Public access and participation are one of those fronts.

We warned that replacing public involvement with closed-door corporate agreements would undermine hard-won progress. A decade later, the push to reach Appropriate Management Levels (AML) and stay there “by whatever means available” has gone hand in hand with shutting the public out of meaningful participation.

Please be assured: our team is continuing this work, stretching every available resource as far as we can to defend public access, accountability, and the wild horses and burros at the heart of our mission. Much of that work is happening behind the scenes, but it is moving forward. We will keep you informed and share further updates as soon as we can.

Red Desert Roundup, 2020

Spotlight: Wyoming

The Red Desert roundup is set to begin October 15th. This operation targets 1,035 wild horses for capture.

If the capture target is met, about 100 wild horses will be returned to the range with population growth suppression applied.

2020 release after PZP treatment

This roundup is part of a larger plan.

BLM states: “The BLM will use a combination of incremental gathers and ongoing fertility control treatments to achieve and maintain healthy wild horse populations and rangelands. During gather operations, staff plan to treat a percentage of the gathered mares with fertility control and release them back to the range.”

In online materials BLM does not confirm the substance they will use. We have rumor, but not confirmation, that BLM will continue using PZP-22 and not switch to GonaCon.

To understand the plan BLM approved you can go back and look at Scoping Comments from April (HERE).

NOTHING changed substantially from Scoping, through draft to final. In other words, BLM knew what they wanted to do before they asked for input or even did the analysis. This is called “pre-determination.”

Once again BLM is claiming everything relevant to an actual HMAP is somehow “outside the scope” of what an HMAP should analyze. BLM created a gather plan, not a management plan.

The most egregious “outside the scope” is the refusal to to even look at repatriation all or part of Arapho Creek. Araphao Creek is what BLM calls a Herd Area (HA). That means that although it was originally designation as a herd area for managing horses, BLM simply decided they were not going to manage horses there (primarily due to the small 1-mile parcels of private property within the area). They set the number allowed (AML) at “0” saying it was “not suitable for management.” This number has never reflected the wild horses that were, and have always been, still are, able to thrive in the area. In fact, BLM relies on acreage within Arapho to claim that they do not have to set isolated genetically viable numbers as an AML for the other HMAs; because they “move and mingle.” Yes, they move through Arapho.

Lost Creek, Red Desert. H.Hellyer

In implementing the predetermined plan, BLM is not only ignoring your voice in management, they are blocking you from being able to witness was they do.

The Wild Horse and Burro program, under the Path Forward exclusive corporate parter groups, has taken a path backward… twenty years.

In a move nearly identical to access afforded back in 2009, only 4 days out of a 37 day roundup. Not one of the reasons BLM is giving provide Constitutionally legal restriction of the First Amendment.

Our attorneys have sent legal notice.

The roundup plan (BLM is calling an HMAP) will remain valid after this operation.

BLM raced from Scoping to Final in record time. BLM has consistently complained that “creating an HMAP would take a long time, at least a year.” Here, BLM went from Scoping to Final in 4 months, approving the final with a mere 60 days before a chopper flies. This is not even enough time to have grievances fully adjudication in a land board appeal.

Nearly identical (in substance) issues present at Red Desert are already have already been taken into Federal court by WHE (us) and those cases are heading for rulings. Rulings in those cases can create circumstances favorable to address the (Red Desert) plan in federal court, not simply waiting years for the land use process to complete.

We will keep you posted. We are stretching as far as our resources will allow.

SLAUGHTER AND KILLING…  and MUSTANGING BACK! WYOMING 

Wyoming is, once again, creating resolutions they will carry to pressure the federal government to allow open sales to slaughter, killing wild horses and burros in holding and, a new twist, allowing private landowners (notably in “checkerboard areas”) to “deal with” wild horses that walk over an invisible boundary from public onto private lands.

You can read the resolution HERE. 

The new twist to their annual request to allow selling wild horses and burro to slaughter and killing healthy animals in holding facilities is that they want to be able to shoot them (hunt them) on the range. Essentially bringing mustanging back. They basically want the Wild Horse and Burro Act… gone.

“Section 2. That the Wyoming Legislature requests that 18 Congress introduce and enact legislation to amend the federal 19 Hunting Wild Horses and Burros on Public Lands Act to 20 authorize any person to use helicopters or motor vehicles to 21 capture or kill wild horses and burros.”

Normally we would add this to the annual cycle pile as Wyoming is usually the first (then followed by Utah, Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico) to push for open sales and killing.

Not this year.

Karen Budd-Falen, serves as a senior/high-ranking official and associate deputy secretary / acting deputy secretary at the U.S. Department of the Interior under Secretary Doug Burgum. She is from Big Piney, Wyoming, where she grew up as a fifth-generation rancher, and currently lives and practices law in Cheyenne, Wyoming. She an her husband also have ranching interests all over the West including Nevada where the overlap with huge Litium mining (Thacker Pass) has gotten her a bit of press and a call for ethics violations investigations. 

She also announced, at a political rally in Wyoming, that she is rewriting the wild horse regulations so they fall in line with law and current policy. She assured the audience that restrictions on Sale and “killing” would be part of that rewrite. The notice that these regulations are being drafted was placed into the federal registry and we expect that the public review period will begin near the end of the calendar year. Timecode 13:22 on YouTube HERE

This battle, after public comments near the end of the year, will ripe for litigation when the final arrives (likely) early  next year.

We expect that the aim is to essentially render the Wild Horse and Burro Act into oblivion: from the on range planning issues, to slaughter and killing, through gutting of public participation.

Every other year we would see this as just the annual cycle.

This year it is foreshadowing changes in the works.

We are preparing for this fight… now.

What can the public do?

Every call, every email, every time you raise your voice you let lawmakers know this is an issue that could cost them votes. This issue matters to you.

You can take action to gain guardrails to the $30. million dollar influx coming from USDA to BLM to pursue “get to AML and stay there at any means.” There are no guardrails that would prohibit how this money is spent from experiments to surgical sterilization.  Click here

You can continue to push for the passage of the SAFE Act to stop the commercial trade for slaughter. In enacted, this bill would impact domestic horses and wild horses after they lose protected status following title transfer. Click HERE

You could take action to gain enforceable welfare rules. Click HERE

You could simply look up your lawmakers and tell them that protecting wild horses and burros as part of public lands, protecting them from abuse and slaughter, and ensuring the public voice is not cut out of decision making is paramount to you. Look up HERE

No matter which issue you are addressing with your lawmakers to protect our wild horses and burros, each call or email tells them American’s still care.

With the chaos in Washington as we enter another election cycle with so many urgent issues on their schedules, remembering how much wild horses and burros mean to the American public holds value. 

We are not a large corporate organization with sponsors we are beholden to. We are stretching as far as we can. Please be patient as articles and social media posting may experience delays.

Our team members will be onsite at roundups that begin this week and we will provide updates.

Our team members are moving numerous issues through the court system, now. We will update as time allows.

Our team members are doing outreach to lawmakers.

Every mile we travel to cover roundups or assess a herd, every court case we bring, every win, every action we take is only possible because of your support. Sincere Gratitude.